1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic accompaniment apparatus and, more particularly, to an automatic accompaniment apparatus which can eliminate unnatural switching to a special pattern such as a fill-in pattern during an automatic accompaniment operation using a normal pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in the field of an automatic accompaniment apparatus, a technique for inserting a special pattern such as a fill-in pattern, an ending pattern, or the like during an automatic accompaniment operation using a normal pattern is known. More specifically, when a player turns on an instruction switch such as a fill-in switch, an ending switch, or the like during execution of an automatic accompaniment operation using a normal pattern, the accompaniment pattern is switched to a special pattern.
In this case, whether the accompaniment pattern is switched immediately or from the beginning of the next bar is normally controlled depending on the instructed position, in a bar, of insertion of the fill-in or ending pattern by the player.
For example, the following control is normally performed. That is, in the case of four-four time, when the ON timing of the fill-in switch falls within a range from the beginning of the first beat to the end of the third beat, the accompaniment pattern is immediately switched to the fill-in pattern from that timing; when the ON timing of the fill-in switch falls within a range from the beginning of the fourth beat to the end of the bar, the accompaniment pattern is switched to the fill-in pattern from the beginning of the next bar.
With this control, the player can switch the accompaniment pattern from a desired position.
However, when the accompaniment pattern is switched from a timing in the middle of a bar, the accompaniment pattern changes too suddenly, resulting in an unnatural impression. More specifically, since an accompaniment pattern used so far is temporarily damped, and is then switched to a new accompaniment pattern upon switching of the accompaniment pattern, the flow of music is interrupted at that time, resulting in unnatural insertion.
In particular, tones such as chord backing tones which have a relatively long duration give an unnatural impression if they are damped in the middle of their duration.